Motorola Solutions

About Motorola Solutions

Motorola Solutions is a company built on a simple, powerful idea: connecting people in the moments that matter most. Today, that means providing rugged radios, body cameras, and sophisticated command center software to first responders and businesses. It’s a mission-critical business where failure isn’t an option, a focus honed over decades of transformation. The story begins in 1928, when brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin founded the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation in Chicago. Their first product was a "battery eliminator" that let battery-powered radios run on household electricity. Soon after, they created one of the first commercially successful car radios, branding it the "Motorola"—a blend of "motor" and "Victrola." The name stuck, and the company officially became Motorola, Inc. in 1947. For decades, Motorola was a giant in consumer electronics and telecommunications, pioneering everything from the Handie-Talkie two-way radios used in World War II to the world's first commercial handheld cellular phone. The equipment that carried the first words from the moon was Motorola-made. But by the 2000s, the company faced immense pressure, particularly in the competitive mobile phone market. This led to a defining pivot. In 2011, the company split into two separate entities: Motorola Mobility, which handled consumer cell phones and was later acquired by Google, and Motorola Solutions, the legal successor to the original company, which retained the mission-critical government and enterprise business. This split marked a new chapter. Freed from the consumer market, Motorola Solutions doubled down on its core: public safety and enterprise security. Under the leadership of Chairman and CEO Greg Brown, the company embarked on an aggressive acquisition strategy to build an integrated ecosystem of voice, video, and data. Key acquisitions included Avigilon, a video surveillance manufacturer, and a host of software companies specializing in command center operations and AI-powered analytics. Today, Motorola Solutions operates as a command-and-control platform, where rugged radios are just one piece of a connected system that includes video security, access control, and advanced software. The company continues to acquire firms in areas like cloud-based 911 solutions and AI, signaling a future where the lifeline for first responders is not just a voice, but a seamless flow of intelligent data.